JPH0459515A - Wafer transfer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To maintain wafers in a clear condition even if a transfer device produces dust or particles, when the wafers are transferred between a carrier and a quartz port, by carrying out the transfer in such a condition that clean air flow has been taken into a closed exterior body. CONSTITUTION:A desired number of carriers 10 inside a storage chamber 2 are transferred into a transfer device 4 by a conveying device, and a port 11 is transferred to the transfer device of the device 4 from another storage chamber 3. At that time, fans 20 at the bottom and side of the device 4 are driven to take in a purifying air flow A through an air filter 19 at the upper surface thereof. Since the inside of the device 4 is isolated from a clean room by an exterior body 18, the air flow A is efficiently circulated in the transfer space K. In this purifying air flow region, a supporting body 15 is lifted by a vertically driving mechanism 14, and all the semiconductor wafers W inside a carrier 10 are collectively lifted, and are sandwichedly supported from right and left by an insertedly holding body 16 that has been horizontally moved to that position by a driving mechanism 17. Then, the supporting body 15 is lowered, and the insertedly holding body 16 is horizontally moved on the port 11, and then it is lowered and the wafer W is placed on the port 11.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to a wafer transfer device.

[Prior art and problems to be solved by the invention] Conventionally, in the manufacturing process of semiconductor wafers and liquid crystal wafers, oxidation equipment and CVD equipment have been used to form oxide films, metal films, single crystal films, etc., and to diffuse impurities. There are heat treatment devices such as , epitaxial devices, and diffusion devices. When a semiconductor wafer is subjected to a reaction in these heat treatment apparatuses, the semiconductor wafer is supported by a boat made of a heat-resistant material, such as quartz, that can withstand high temperatures and does not generate impurities due to high temperatures. For this reason, there is a transfer device for transferring semiconductor wafers between a carrier and a quartz boat that accommodates, for example, 25 semiconductor wafers before and after a reaction in a heat treatment apparatus and transports them between processes.

The semiconductor wafer transfer device carries out a carrier in which a plurality of semiconductor wafers are stored vertically and parallel to each other from a clean storage room, raises a support from below the carrier, and supports the semiconductor wafers upward all at once. The semiconductor wafers supported above are held together by a holding body and moved horizontally onto a quartz boat placed horizontally on an adjacent site, and when the holding body is further lowered and the semiconductor wafers are transferred to the quartz boat, the holding is stopped. It is to be released and transferred. Further, in the above semiconductor wafer transfer device, when storing processed semiconductor wafers from a quartz boat into a carrier, the above operation is performed in reverse. Even though carriers containing semiconductor wafers are stored in a clean storage room, the drive mechanism of such semiconductor wafer transfer equipment is operated frequently when transferring semiconductor wafers, which generates dust and particles. However, it was not possible to prevent dust and particles from adhering to semiconductor wafers.

The present invention has been developed to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and provides a wafer transfer device that prevents dust and particles from adhering to the semiconductor wafer 1 even when transferring the semiconductor wafer. With the goal.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the wafer transfer device of the present invention has the following features:
A wafer transfer device that transfers the wafer between a carrier that stores the wafer and a boat that supports the wafer, which is provided with means for forming a cleaning gas flow in the wafer transfer space. be.

[Operation] A wafer transfer device that transfers wafers between a carrier that stores the wafers and a quartz boat that supports the wafers during processing in a processing device such as a heat treatment device supplies clean air to the wafer transfer space. Incorporate. Therefore, even while the wafer is being transferred, it is placed in clean air, and no dust or particles will adhere to it during the transfer.

[Embodiment] An embodiment in which a wafer transfer apparatus of the present invention is applied to a heat treatment apparatus for semiconductor manufacturing will be described with reference to the drawings.

The heat treatment apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 mainly includes a storage room 2 in which a large number of carriers containing semiconductor wafers are stored, a storage room 3 in which a large number of quartz boats for heat treatment that support semiconductor wafers are stored, and these storage rooms. 2 and 3, a transfer device M4 that transfers semiconductor wafers from a carrier transported from storage room 2 to a quartz boat, and a plurality of, for example, three reaction devices that perform heat treatment on semiconductor wafers. A heat treatment furnace 5 and a boat transport device that transports a quartz boat supporting unprocessed semiconductor wafers from the transfer device 4 to the heat treatment furnace 5 or transfers heat-treated semiconductor wafers from the heat treatment furnace 5 to the transfer device 4. It consists of a device 6. A storage room 2 for storing carriers constituting the heat treatment apparatus 1 is equipped with multi-stage shelves 7, and a plurality of carriers, for example, six carriers, are placed on the shelves 7 at once by a carrier transfer machine (not shown) provided in a movable mechanism 8. It is about to be placed. Further, the storage room 3 for storing boats stores a quartz boat 11 capable of horizontally storing a plurality of semiconductor wafers, for example, 170 sheets, with its elongated direction vertical, and transports the quartz boat 11 to a transfer device 4 (not shown). It includes a boat transfer device and a boat transfer device (not shown) that transfers the boat to the boat transfer device. These storage chambers 2 and 3 each have a sealed exterior body 12.
An air filter 13 is attached to the upper surface of the exterior body 12, and a down flow from the clean room is actively taken in by a fan (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 2, a transfer device 4 provided adjacent to these storage chambers 2 and 3 is connected to a vertical drive mechanism 14 that lifts and simultaneously supports all the semiconductor wafers W stored in one carrier 10. A connected support 15 is provided. A clamping body 16 that clamps the semiconductor wafer W lifted and supported by the support body 15 from the left and right is connected to a horizontal and vertical drive mechanism 17, and is adapted to be transferred onto the boat 11. The transfer device 4 equipped with these is sealed by an exterior body 18, and is provided so as to isolate the transfer space K from the clean room in which the heat treatment device 1 is arranged.

The exterior body 18 is made of an anti-static plastic material such as PVC or acrylic plate, and is transparent so that the inside can be observed. An air filter 19 is provided on the upper surface of the exterior body 18, and the air filter 19 is capable of removing particles down to 01 μφ. The transfer device 4, which is covered with an exterior body 18 and has an air filter 19 attached to its upper surface, is equipped with an exhaust mechanism, such as a fan 20, on the side and bottom surfaces, as shown in FIG. The downflow of the clean room is actively introduced into the transfer space covered by the exterior body 18 to form a clean gas stream.

The transfer device 4 is equipped with a boat rotation device 2 for converting the boat 11 fully loaded with semiconductor wafers W from horizontal support to vertical support. The boat rotation device 21 is connected to a horizontal drive mechanism 22, a vertical drive mechanism 23, and a rotation drive mechanism 24, and has a fitting part 25 that supports the boat 11, and rotates while fixedly supporting the boat 11. Boat 1
1 from horizontal support to vertical support.

Furthermore, the boat conveyance device 6 through which the boat 11 is transferred by the boat rotation device 2 is connected to a conveyance path 26 and a conveyance path 26.
Boat platform 2 placed on a stage 27 that moves above
8. The boat transport device 6 has an exterior body 29 that seals and covers the entire transport path 26, and has an air filter 30 on the top surface.
There are multiple. This exterior body 29 and air filter 3
0 is the same as the material of the transfer device 4, and as shown in FIG. The structure is such that clean air is taken in to form a clean air flow B.

The heat treatment furnace 5 consists of a processing section 31 and a conveyance section 32, and the conveyance section 32 includes a boat 11 conveyed by a boat conveyance device 6.
a robot arm 33 that receives from the boat platform 28;
The robot arm 33 rotates and is provided with a vertical drive mechanism 34 that allows the boat 11 to be carried over. Vertical drive mechanism 34
is a processing section 31 equipped with a reaction tube heater (not shown), etc.
The boat 11 is inserted into the holder.

The operation of the heat treatment apparatus 1 having such a configuration will be explained.

A plurality of desired carriers 10 stored in the storage room 2 are carried into the transfer device 4 by a transport device (not shown). On the other hand, one boat 11 is transferred from the storage room 3 to the transfer device 4 by the transfer system.
transport to the transfer position.

At this time, the fans 20 provided on the bottom and side surfaces of the transfer device t4 are driven to take in clean air through the air filter 19 on the top (7).
Since the inside of the transfer device 4 is isolated from the clean room, the flow efficiently flows through the transfer space K. In this clean air region, the support body 15 is raised by the vertical drive mechanism 14, and all the semiconductor wafers W housed in one carrier 10 are raised at once. The raised semiconductor wafer W is held and supported by the holding body 16 which has been horizontally moved to that position by the drive mechanism 17 from the left and right sides. Support body 15
is lowered by the vertical drive mechanism 14, and the holding body 16 is moved horizontally onto the boat 11 by the drive mechanism 17, and then lowered to place the semiconductor wafer W on the boat 11. Then, the holding body opens, releases the holding of the semiconductor wafer W, and rises to move to the next carrier 2 position. Thereafter, the above operations are repeated for the carriers one after another, and the semiconductor wafers W are transferred to the boat 11.
Transferred to.

The boat 11 supporting the semiconductor wafer W is a horizontal drive mechanism 2
2, the boat rotating device 2 is held by the fitting part 25 of the boat rotating device 21, which is moved to the position of the boat 11 by the boat rotating device 2, and is further moved to a predetermined position by the horizontal drive mechanism 22.
The rotational drive mechanism 24 of 1 changes the horizontal support to vertical support. The boat rotating device 21 is further lowered by the vertical drive mechanism 23 to place the vertically supported boat 11 on the boat loading position of the boat transport device 6. At this time, the fan 31 of the boat transport device 6 is activated to actively take in the downflow of the clean room from the air filter 30 and form a clean air flow B in the space 1. The boat transport device 6 transports the boat 11 along the transport path 26 to the front of the desired heat treatment furnace 7.
is transported and moved by the stage 27 to the position of the robot arm 33 of the heat treatment furnace 5. And robot arm 33
The boat 11 delivered to the processing section 3 is lifted up by the vertical drive mechanism 34 and inserted into the processing section 3].

After the heat treatment is completed, the aforementioned operation is reversed, and the boat 11 carrying the processed semiconductor wafers 8 is stored in the storage chamber 3. Since the semiconductor wafer is cooled down to room temperature, the next process can be performed immediately after the heat treatment is completed without having to place it in the heat treatment apparatus for a long time, and the heat treatment can be efficiently completed one after another.

The present invention is applicable not only to heat treatment apparatuses but also to batch-type plasma processing apparatuses. Further, the wafer is not limited to a semiconductor wafer, and may be a liquid crystal wafer.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above explanation, the wafer transfer device of the present invention allows clean air to flow inside the sealed exterior body even when transferring wafers between a carrier and a quartz boat. Since the wafers are actively taken in, the wafers can be maintained in a clean state even if the transfer equipment generates dust or particles. Therefore, high-quality products can be obtained without producing defective products due to adhesion of dust and particles, and moreover, it is economical because there are fewer defective products.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment in which the wafer transfer device of the present invention is applied to a heat treatment device, and FIGS.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a main part of the embodiment shown in the figure. 19... Air filter (airflow forming means) 20...
・Fan (airflow forming means) W...Semiconductor wafer K...Transfer space

Claims (1)

[Claims] A wafer transfer device that transfers the wafer between a carrier that stores the wafer and a boat that supports the wafer is provided with means for forming a cleaning gas flow in the wafer transfer space. Characteristic wafer transfer equipment.